Gunther Blumentritt

Gunther Blumentritt (10 February 1892-12 October 1967) was a General der Infanterie of the German Wehrmacht during World War II, commanding the German 25th Army and his own army corps. Blumentritt distinguished himself as an excellent staff officer under Gerd von Rundstedt for much of the war, and he would only hold a combat command in the last months of the war.

Biography
Gunther Blumentritt was born on 10 February 1892 in Munich, Bavaria, German Empire. Blumentritt joined the Imperial German Army and served in World War I, and he ended the war as an Oberleutnant. After the war, he briefly served in the Freikorps before rejoining the Reichswehr, and he became a staff officer in Nazi Germany's Heer during the 1930s. During the invasion of Poland, Blumentritt was appointed Gerd von Rundstedt's operational chief, and the friendly Bavarian Catholic Blumentritt and the stiff Protestant Prussian Rundstedt became close friends. Blumentritt was an excellent staff officer, and helped in planning out the major operations of the Wehrmacht during the early 1940s, including Operation Barbarossa.

In September 1942, when Rundstedt was given command of all German forces in Western Europe, Blumentritt remained his right-hand man, and he was shocked by the Allied landings in Normandy. He would then serve under Gunther von Kluge after Adolf Hitler dismissed Rundstedt for suggesting that Germany should surrender to the Allies, and Blumentritt would be dismissed from command after he was suspected of involvement in the attempted 20 July 1944 assassination of Hitler. However, Hitler believed him to be innocent, and he made use of Blumentritt as an ambassador between the SS and the Wehrmacht. Blumentritt was given command of his own corps during the last months of 1944, and his corps defended the Roermond Triangle between Germany and the Netherlands during Operation Blackcock in January 1945. He was later given command of the German 25th Army in the Netherlands and ordered to hold the region to the last man (as a "fortress"), and he ordered for his men to give no resistance to the Allied Powers on 30 April 1945. On 5 May 1945, he made his capitulation to the British Army, and he was imprisoned until 1948.

During the 1950s, Blumentritt was one of the men sent to supervise the rearmament of the Bundeswehr army of West Germany during the Cold War, and he assisted the Allied historians in writing about the events of the war. Blumentritt died in his hometown of Munich, Bavaria in 1967 at the age of 75.